User interface to display and manage an entity and associated resources

ABSTRACT

A user interface to display and manage a plurality of entities as if a single entity is provided. The user interface includes a representation of the collection of entities as a whole, and a representation of members associated with the entity. If an action is performed on the representation of the entities as a whole, then the action is propagated to the collection of entities, if the action is performed on the representation of the member associated with the entity, then the action is directed to the member.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a divisional application of U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/606,383, entitled “USER INTERFACE TO DISPLAY AND MANAGE AN ENTITY ANDASSOCIATED RESOURCES”, filed Jun. 28, 2000. This application is alsorelated to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No.______ (Atty. Dkt.No. MS150960.02/MSFTP116USA) entitled “USER INTERFACE TO DISPLAY ANDMANAGE AN ENTITY AND ASSOCIATED RESOURCES” filed on Oct. 18, 2004. Theentireties of the above-noted applications are incorporated herein byreference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to computer systems, and moreparticularly to a system and method for managing and interfacing to aplurality of computers cooperating as an entity wherein the entity maybe interfaced collectively as a whole and/or individually.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

With the advent of Internet applications, computing system requirementsand demands have increased dramatically. Many businesses, for example,have made important investments relating to Internet technology tosupport growing electronic businesses such as E-Commerce. Sincecompanies are relying on an ever increasing amount of network commerceto support their businesses, computing systems generally have becomemore complex in order to substantially ensure that servers providingnetwork services never fail. Consequently, system reliability is animportant aspect to the modern business model.

A first approach for providing powerful and reliable services may beassociated with a large multiprocessor system (e.g., mainframe) formanaging a server, for example. Since more than one processor may beinvolved within a large system, services may continue even if one of theplurality of processors fail. Unfortunately, these large systems may beextraordinarily expensive and may be available to only the largest ofcorporations. A second approach for providing services may involveemploying a plurality of lesser expensive systems (e.g., off the shelfPC) individually configured as an array to support the desired service.Although these systems may provide a more economical hardware solution,system management and administration of individual servers is generallymore complex and time consuming.

Currently, management of a plurality of servers is a time intensive andproblematic endeavor. For example, managing server content (e.g.,software, configuration, data files, components, etc.) requiresadministrators to explicitly distribute (e.g., manually and/or throughcustom script files) new or updated content and/or configurations (e.g.,web server configuration, network settings, etc.) across the servers. Ifa server's content becomes corrupted, an administrator often has noautomatic means of correcting the problem. Furthermore, configuration,load-balance adjusting/load balance tool selection, and monitoringgenerally must be achieved via separate applications. Thus, managementof the entity (e.g., plurality of computers acting collectively) as awhole generally requires individual configuration of loosely coupledservers whereby errors and time expended are increased.

Presently, there is not a straightforward and efficient system and/orprocess for managing and administering a collection of independentservers. Many problems are thereby created since administrators may begenerally required to work with machines individually to setup content,tools, monitor server state and administer each server. Due to the needto administer and modify content on each machine individually, errorsare a common occurrence. For example, it is routine for portions ofserver content to get out of sync with a master copy of contentassociated with the collection of servers. Additionally, setting upload-balancing for servers, wherein each server may be given a suitableamount of work, is often a painful and error prone process. For example,load-balancing often requires knowledge of intimate details ofload-balancing tools which are often difficult and complex to work with.

Another problem associated with management of a plurality of servers isrelated to adding additional servers to the system. Adding servers isgenerally time intensive and error prone since the new server generallymust be manually configured as well as having the system content copiedto the new server. Furthermore, server configuration settings generallyneed to be adjusted along with the content.

Still yet another problem associated with management is related toreceiving system wide performance results and/or status views of thecollection of servers. Some applications may exist that provideperformance or status of an individual server, however, theseapplications generally do not provide performance or status across thelogical collection of loosely coupled servers. For example, many timesit is important to view information from the collection of servers todetermine relevant system-wide performance. Thus, getting a quickresponse view of pertinent performance information (e.g.,requests/second, memory used) associated with the plurality of serversmay be problematic, however, since each server generally must besearched independently.

Currently, there is not an efficient and straightforward interface formanaging and administering an entity without substantial and sometimescomplex individual configuration/monitoring of each member associatedwith the entity. Consequently, there is an unsolved need in the art fora user interface to manage, create, administer, configure and monitor agroup of servers operating as an entity.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a user interface to display and managea plurality of entities as a single entity. For example, the entitiesmay include a plurality of members (e.g., computers, servers, clusters)collectively cooperating as a whole. In accordance with the presentinvention, a system interface is provided wherein a consistent andunified representation of a plurality of the entities as a whole may beobtained and/or managed from any of the members associated with theentity. Moreover, remote systems may interface with the entity—even ifnot a member thereof.

The interface enables actions to be performed on the representation ofthe entities as a whole and/or on representations of members associatedwith the entity individually. If actions are to be performed on theentities as a whole, the action may be propagated to the collection ofentities. If the action is performed on the representation of a member,then the action may be directed to the member. In this manner, systemadministration, configuration and monitoring are greatly facilitated byenabling a user to send and receive information to the entity as if theentity were essentially a single machine. In contrast to prior art userinterfaces wherein any collection of machines connected over a networkmay need to be administered individually, at each machine site, and/orvia separate applications, the present invention provides point entryinto the entity from a consistent and singular applications interfacethat may be directed from substantially any system operatively coupledto the entity (e.g., Internet connection).

More specifically, the present invention provides navigationalnamespaces that represent the collection of entities as a whole and/ormembers associated with the entity. In this manner, a hierarchy ofentities may be established wherein members and/or other entities may berepresented. For example, a first namespace may provide an entity (e.g.,cluster) wide view and a second namespace may provide a member view. Theentity wide namespace enables users to navigate to pages thatprovides/distributes information to/from the entity as a whole such asviewing performance and status of members, creating/viewing/editingapplication manifests defined for deployment to the entity,creating/viewing/filtering event logs aggregated for the entity andspecific to each member, and viewing resource monitors (e.g., CPUutilization, memory utilization, server requests/second) aggregated forthe entity and/or individually for each member. The member view enablesusers to navigate to pages designed to provide status and performanceviews of a particular member such as the manifests, event logs andmonitors described above and also view/manage applications deployedacross the entity.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, an entity(e.g., cluster, plurality of servers) node view may be provided tofacilitate management and navigation of each member associated with theentity, wherein a monitor node view facilitates viewing, enabling anddisabling monitors associated with performance aspects of the entity andindividual members. An events node may further be provided to view andfilter aggregated and individual member event logs. A performance viewmay be provided to facilitate an aggregated status of the entity whereina status view may provide the overall state and health of each member ofthe entity. Additionally, member specific status may be viewed withinthe entity namespace, and an applications view may be provided forediting applications as described above.

According to another aspect of the present invention, administrationhelpers (e.g., wizards) may be provided to create an entityrelationship, add members to the entity and to deploy applications andresources across the entity and/or to systems which may be remotetherefrom. In this manner, the entity may be viewed and administered ina singular fashion thus mitigating individual member upgrades andsynchronization problems between members. Furthermore, the presentinvention may be automatically installed by selecting a potential memberfrom the operating system wherein the operating system then directs aninstallation to the member and then further adds the member to theentity.

According to another aspect of the present invention, management inputoperations for the entity are provided. From the context of memberswithin the entity, members may be taken online or offline, automaticallysynchronized and/or not synchronized with the entity, have member weightadjusted for load balancing, specify a dedicated IP address and/orspecify suitable load balancing parameters, provide an IIS restart,and/or restart the member.

From the context of the entity as a whole, a user may set entity widesettings such as load balancing, synchronize members that are part of areplication loop, set request forwarding behavior, and/or manage entitywide IP addresses. In order to facilitate management of applications,the user interface may expose a manifest to maintain a list of validresources that may be deployed, managed and monitored across the entity.To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the inventionthen, comprises the features hereinafter fully described.

The following description and the annexed drawings set forth in detailcertain illustrative aspects of the invention. These aspects areindicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which theprinciples of the invention may be employed and the present invention isintended to include all such aspects and their equivalents. Otheradvantages and novel features of the invention will become apparent fromthe following detailed description of the invention when considered inconjunction with the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a user interface formanaging an entity in accordance with one aspect of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is an interface display for entity management in accordance withone aspect of the present invention;

FIGS. 3 a and 3 b illustrate connection dialogs in accordance with oneaspect of the present invention;

FIGS. 4 a and 4 b illustrate entity and member performance interfacedisplays in accordance with one aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 5 illustrates a display interface for managing entity applicationsin accordance with one aspect of the present invention;

FIGS. 6 a and 6 b illustrate entity and member event interface displaysin accordance with one aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 7 a illustrates a display interface for managing and viewingmonitors in accordance with one aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 7 b illustrates a display interface for managing and viewing anentity in accordance with an alternative aspect of the presentinvention;

FIGS. 8 a-8 c illustrate entity configuration interface displays inaccordance with one aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 9 illustrates a member configuration interface display inaccordance with one aspect of the present invention;

FIGS. 10 a and 10 b illustrate configuration interface displays forconfiguring events in accordance with one aspect of the presentinvention;

FIGS. 11 a-11 j illustrates a process for creating an entity inaccordance with one aspect of the present invention;

FIGS. 12 a-12 f illustrates a process for adding a server to an entityin accordance with one aspect of the present invention;

FIGS. 13 a-13 h illustrates a process for deploying content across anentity in accordance with one aspect of the present invention; and

FIG. 14 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a system in accordancewith one aspect of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is now described with reference to the drawings,wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elementsthroughout.

In accordance with the present invention, a user interface is providedthat greatly facilitates management and administration of an entity. Theuser interface substantially automates management by enabling a user toadminister and manage the entity from any of a plurality of systemsoperatively coupled to the entity. A consistent user experience istherefore provided wherein the entity may be configured and monitored asif the entity were a singular machine—thereby providing a substantialimprovement over conventional systems that may require an administratorto individually configure, monitor, maintain, and upgrade each machinecomprising the entity. Thus, the present invention saves time andadministration costs associated with conventional systems. Moreover,system configurability and troubleshooting is improved since entitymembers may be operated upon as a collective whole (e.g., viewing systemwide performance) and/or individual members may be identified andoperated upon.

Management is also facilitated by enabling a user/administrator tomanage and configure a plurality of entities and/or entities from asingle computer. In accordance with the user interface of the presentinvention, a user may create entities, join existing entities,add/remove existing members, deploy content (e.g., components, DLLs,data files) across the entity and/or to other entities/servers,configure load balancing and monitor performance. It is to beappreciated that the present invention may manage both homogeneous andnon-homogeneous entities. For example, a homogeneous entity may includesystems wherein all members share similar applications and resources. Anon-homogeneous system may not require all members to be configured thesame. As will be described in more detail below, the user interface mayinclude an output such as display objects (e.g., icons, buttons, dialogboxes, pop-up menu's, wizards) and an input (e.g., buttons, selectionboxes, user input boxes, wizards) to facilitate creating, joining,managing, monitoring and configuring the entity.

Referring initially to FIG. 1, a system 10 illustrates a particularaspect of the present invention related to a user interface for managingand displaying a plurality of systems cooperating as an entity. Aplurality of systems (e.g., computers, servers, machines) for example,computer systems 1 through N (N being an integer) 20 a through 20 d maybe operatively coupled to a network 24 thereby forming an entity 30.Other computer systems that may not be part of the entity 30, such ascomputer system 20 e, may also be coupled to the network 24 formonitoring and administering the entity 30. In order to manage andadminister the entity 30, a plurality of displays (e.g., computermonitor) 34 a through 34 e may provide output, and a plurality of inputdevices (e.g., mouse, keyboard) 38 a through 38 e may provide input, toa user interface 40 a through 40 e herein referred to as the userinterface 40.

As depicted by the system 10, the user interface 40 enables a user toadminister, monitor, and configure the entity 30 from each member 20a-20 d and/or from non-members such as computer system 20 e. The userinterface 40 provides a consistent interface for the user to manage theentity 30 as if a singular machine. For example, the computer system 20e may be added to the entity 30 via the user interface 40 from any ofcomputer systems 20 a through 20 e. Consequently, the user does not haveto administer (e.g., gain access to each machine) and configure (e.g.,download new content/software) each machine individually. Thus, time issaved and errors are mitigated. It is noted that the user interface 40generally does not have to run on each computer in the system 10. Aswill be described in more detail below, full entity control may beachieved by interfacing to a controller, for example.

In accordance with the present invention, one of the computer systems 20a through 20 d may be configured to operate as a controller for theentity 30. The controller may operate as a master and determine whatinformation is distributed throughout the entity 30. It is noted thatthe entity may still continue to operate even if the controller becomesdisconnected. However, it is to be appreciated that another member maybe promoted to a controller at any time.

The user interface 40 may be served with information provided from eachmember 20 a through 20 d. This may be achieved by enabling each memberto distribute information to the entity 30. Therefore, the interface 40may provide aggregated information from the entity as a whole—incontrast to conventional systems wherein information may be received anddisplayed from individual members. For example, computer systems 20 a-20d processor performance may be displayed as an aggregation of the outputof each member of the entity 30. Any of the displays 34 a through 34 emay provide a similar consistent view. It is noted that the members 20 athrough 20 d may also be entities. For example, some members could alsobe a collection of members represented by an entity. Thus, the entity 30may include members that are entities in their own right.

Alternatively, the user interface enables individual performance to bemonitored from any of the displays 34 a through 34 e by selecting aparticular member from a context menu (not shown) as will be describedin more detail below. Furthermore, entity configurations may be modifiedfrom any of the user interfaces 40 by enabling the user to provide inputto the interface and thereby distribute resultant modificationsthroughout the entity 30. This may be achieved for example, by providingthe user input to the controller described above wherein the controllermay then distribute the modified configuration throughout the entity 30.It is to be appreciated that other distribution systems may be provided.For example, rather than have entity resources centrally distributed andaggregated at the controller, individual members 20 a-20 d may share amaster file (e.g., XML) describing the resources and content of eachmember. As new members are added to the entity 30, the resources andcontent may be distributed/received from any of the members 20 a-20 daccording to the master file.

Turning now to FIG. 2, a top-level exemplary user interface 40 isdepicted according to a particular aspect of the present invention. Theuser interface 40 may provide a results pane 50 (e.g., ApplicationCenter) for viewing display output/receiving user input and a scope pane54 for selecting particular aspects of monitoring and configuring theentity 30. It is to be appreciated that the scope pane 54 may bepresented in other forms, such as for example, in a topological and/orgraphical form to enable administrators to direct down to more granularselections to communicate with various members. It is further to beappreciated that other menus and dialogs, as will be described in moredetail below, may be selected from a particular display to provideconfiguration and monitoring. For example, configuration dialogs may beprovided in the form of wizards to direct a user through a process toconfigure a particular aspect of the entity 30. By interfacing with theresults pane 50, and providing input corresponding to various selectionsfrom the scope pane 54 and other menus, a user may rapidly administer,configure and monitor the entity 30. It is further to be appreciatedthat the display output and inputs of the present invention (e.g.,visual input boxes, buttons, output display menus, icons, windows, etc.)relating to managing an entity may be implemented via well-knowndevelopment tools. These tools may include for example, Visual C++,Visual Basic, Java, and/or other development tools such as HTML, FrontPage, and Dream Weaver.

Referring now to FIG. 3 a, a connection dialog illustrates a particularaspect of the present invention. When the user selects “connect” fromthe application menu, a connection dialog 80 a may be displayed in theresults pane 50 and/or as a separate display object. The connectiondialog 80 a enables the user to input a desired server (e.g., member)name via an input 80 b (e.g., input box, rectangle). A browse input 80 cmay be provided to enable the user to locate a selected server from alist (not shown) of available members, and a connection options displayobject 80 d may be provided to enable the user to connect to acontroller as described above for managing the entity as a whole and/orfor managing a particular server directly. For example, an input 80 emay enable the user to manage the entire entity and an input 80 f mayenable the user to manage a particular member. A connect as inputsection 80 g may also be provided to enable the user to enter ausername, password, and/or domain name for logging into a desiredmember. When desired selections described above have been made by theuser, an OK input 80 h may notify the server of the user's desiredselections. A cancel input 80 i may be provided to enable a user toclose the dialog 80 a and dismiss current actions. A help input 80 j mayalso be provided wherein if selected, provides predetermined informationto help the user employ the dialog 80 a.

If the user attempts to connect to a server that is not associated withthe entity, a choose options dialog 82 a, illustrated in FIG. 3 b, maybe provided as display output. The choose options dialog may enable theuser to create a new cluster with the selected server by selecting input82 b, or join the selected server to an existing cluster by selectinginput 82 c. An OK, Cancel and Help input may be provided as describedabove in reference to the connect dialog 80 a.

Referring now to FIGS. 4 a and 4 b, particular aspects of the scope pane54 and results pane 50 are illustrated. FIG. 4 a depicts an entity wideview 90 a and FIG. 4 b depicts a member view 94 a respectively.Referring to FIG. 4 a, the entity wide view 90 a may be selected via amouse for example by selecting display object 90 b (e.g., entity nodeMyCluster). From the scope pane 54, a user may then navigate to aplurality of pages (e.g., displayed in the results pane 50 and/or viaother menus) that provide performance and status views of the entity asa whole by selecting display object 90 b, determine performance andstatus of each member (e.g., selecting display objects 90 c or 90 d),create/view/edit application manifests defined for the cluster byselecting display object 90 e, view events logs aggregated for thecluster 90 f, and view events logs and monitors specific to each memberas described in more detail below.

Referring briefly to FIG. 4 b, a members view 94 a may be provided toenable a user to view pages associated with a particular member byselecting display objects in the scope pane 54 associated with aparticular member (e.g., by selecting display object 90 b or 90 c). Aswill be described in more detail below, the scope pane 54 selectionsfurther enable a user to determine performance and status related toparticular cluster members, create/view/edit applications manifestsdefined for particular members and/or view/ enable/disable monitors forthat member. In this manner, the scope pane 54 provides a navigationalnamespace for managing the entity as a whole and/or managing individualmembers—from any system associated with the entity. Furthermore, eachmember selection may include context menus, as described below, specificto each member node.

As described above in relation to FIG. 4 a, an entity node displayobject 90 b may be provided to display and enable selection of an entity(e.g., cluster). It is to be appreciated that a plurality of entitieshaving associated members may be defined. In order to facilitatemanagement and navigation, each member server (e.g., member node displayobjects 90 c and 90 d) may be presented in the entity node view. Forexample, demobrick-01 and demobrick-02 represent member nodes 90 c and90 d, and appear under entity node 90 b—MyCluster. The entity node view90 a may be independent of each member's actual topology andadditionally may allow for the inclusion of members that are not part ofthe same subnet, domain, and/or physically near. Additionally, amonitors node selection, depicted and described below, provides forviewing/enabling/disabling associated system monitors, and an eventsnode provides for viewing and filtering entity applications, windows,and/or monitors. Furthermore, logging (e.g., storing specified events)may be enabled/disabled for a specific log and/or a specificseverity/source/ event ID combination.

As will be described in more detail below, the user interface 40 mayprovide performance views to enable a user to display to a chart control(e.g., performance counters). The counters may be aggregated for theentity and/or related to a specific member. Additionally, status viewsmay be provided wherein entity wide status may be viewed and/or memberstatus viewed. Status may include health state, load-balancing relatedstatus, current synchronization status, entity health metrics, monitorrelated metrics, and/or synchronization loop state, for example.

If a user selects an entity wide view as described above, a performancedisplay 90 a may be provided as depicted in the results pane 50. Asillustrated in the scope pane 54, an entity node 90 b may be highlightedindicating to the user that performance and status is provided as anaggregated set from members 90 c and 90 d. For example, a status output90 g may include display objects (e.g., icons) for providing statusinformation such as connection status and on-line status of clustermembers 90 c and 90 d. A synchronization display object 90 h may beprovided to show that a particular server is set to be synchronized tothe entity.

As illustrated in the display output 90 a, performance information forthe cluster may be aggregated and displayed. The aggregated informationmay be provided from a plurality of sources such as from countersassociated with performance aspects of members serving the entity. Forexample, a second display output window 90 i may provide informationregarding particular counters such as processor utilization, memoryavailable, and server requests per second. Inputs 90 j and 90 k (e.g.,Add/Remove) may be provided to add and remove counters from the display90 a respectively. For example, if input Add 90 j were selected, apredetermined list (not shown) may be provided to enable the user toselect a performance counter for display output. Similarly, counters maybe removed by selecting (e.g., mouse highlighting) a counter within thedisplay 90 i and then selecting the remove input 90 k.

A selection input/output 901 (e.g., rectangle with selection arrow) maybe provided to enable the user to see and/or select a suitable timeperiod for monitoring the aggregated data described above. As the timeperiod is modified, the resolution of the display output 90 a maythereby be altered accordingly. Additional input selections 90 m and 90n may be provided to enable the user to modify the entity IP address(e.g., integrated operating system load balancing shared virtual IPaddress) and/or refresh the display with updated informationrespectively.

FIG. 4 b illustrates a view similar to FIG. 4 a, however, the displayoutput 94 a is directed from a particular member. As shown in the scopepane 54, demobrick-01 90 c may be highlighted to indicate that data isprovided from a member. As depicted in the display 94 a, and the status90 g and synchronization displays 90 h, output is provided from theselected server—demobrick-01, for example.

Turning now to FIG. 5, an applications management interface 100 a isprovided in accordance with a particular aspect of the present inventionfor creating and modifying entity applications. As depicted in the scopepane 54, an applications display object 100 b may be selected to invokethe applications interface 100 a. The applications interface 100 aprovides a scalable list 100 c of applications associated with theentity. The list 100 c may include sites, components and other contentrelated to an application and facilitates deployment of applicationsthroughout the entity and/or to remote systems not associated with theentity.

An application relating to the list 100 c may provide a collection ofsoftware resources to be utilized for Web site and/or (Component ObjectModel) COM applications. Applications may include files and directories,Web sites (e.g., IIS), COM+ applications, certificates, registry keys,DSN registry entries, and/or WMI settings, for example. Applications mayalso be employed for replication and enable administrators to organizesites into logical groups. Furthermore, an application may include morethan one Web site and/or other resource, or no Web site at all, yet,still be replicated across the cluster. In this manner, administratorsare provided granular control over the process in which replicationoccurs and/or what resources each member will maintain.

The applications interface 100 a may provide an applications task bar100 d and an applications content display 100 e for providinginformation regarding items associated with the list 100 c. The task bar100 d may include a new input 100 d 1, a delete input 100 d 2, a renameinput 100 d 3, a synchronize input 100 d 4, and a refresh input 100 d 5.The new input 100 d 1 enables a user to create a new application to beadded to the list 100 c, wherein the delete input 100 d 2 enables a userto delete a selected item from the list 100 c. The rename input 100 d 3similarly enables a user to rename a selected application. Thesynchronize input 100 d 4 directs a synchronization of the selectedapplication across the entity, and the refresh input 100 d 5 may beemployed to update and/or refresh a Web Page associated with the entity.

Positioned below the task bar 100 d is the application list 100 c. Eachapplication in the list 100 c may be displayed with an associated name100 f and date last modified 100 g. When an application is selected, theapplications content display 100 e may change to display associatedresources for the applications. The content display 100 e may beemployed for displaying and editing a manifest 100 h (e.g., grouping ofassociated files) of an application. For example, the manifest 100 h mayinclude a plurality of resources such as All Resources, Websites/Vdirs,COM+ applications and proxies, registry paths, file system path,certificates and/or DSN settings.

To add a resource to a selected application, the user may select theresource type from an input 100 i and then select an Add input 100 j.Another browser (not shown) may then be launched acting as a dialog forthat particular resource. When the dialog is closed, and the userselects OK, rather than CANCEL, the list of resources 100 h may then berefreshed to display the new resource added. If error conditions aredetected, (e.g., application removed by another user) the user may beprompted by an error message, and the application list 100 c andresource list 100 h may then be refreshed.

To remove a resource, the user may select the desired resource type fromthe resource type 100 i. A remove input 100 k may then be selected. Theuser may then be then prompted with a YES/NO dialog (not shown)confirming removal of the requested resource. If the user selects YES,the resource may be removed and the resource list 100 h then updated.

Referring now to FIG. 6 a, an entity events interface display 110 aillustrates another aspect of the present invention. The events display110 a provides an aggregated view of events that may occur. For example,events, such as errors, warnings, and other system activities, may arisefrom cluster related operations, operating system operations, and/orfrom system monitor logs and/or from external entities as well. Theevents display 110 a may be selected from an events node display object110 b relating to the entity as a whole. Events may be labelled via adescription bar 110 c describing a plurality of columns associated withan event. For example, the columns may include a date, time,server—where event occurred, source—of the event (e.g., workstation,browser), an event ID, and description of event.

Additional inputs may also be included with the events display 110 a.For example, an input 110 d enables a user to select which productcategory a displayed event should be selected from (e.g., operatingsystem, entity operations). A type input 110 e enables a user to decidewhich events should be displayed. A source 110 f and/or event id 110 ginput enables a user to enter selected events to filter (e.g., displayonly filtered events, do not display filtered events). After the source110 f and/or event id 110 g have been entered, a filter input 110 h maythen be selected by the user to enable the filter for the source and/orevent id entered by the user.

Referring now to FIG. 6 b, a member events display output 112 a providesa similar view as described in FIG. 6 a, however, displayed events maybe limited to a selected member in contrast to viewing events for theentity. The member events display 112 a may be selected for example fromthe events node display object 112 b associated with a particularmember. As illustrated in FIG. 6 b, the events display object selectedmay be associated with server demobrick-01, for example.

Now referring to FIG. 7 a, a monitor interface display 120 a relating tovarious aspects of the entity is illustrated. For example, a healthmonitoring tool (not shown) may be associated with the entity and/ormembers. The monitor display 120 a may then be selected for the entityfrom a display object 120 b, for example. Additionally, and asillustrated in FIG. 7, the monitor display 120 a may be selected for amember from a monitor node display object 120 c. As depicted in thedisplay output 120 a, various aspects of system status such as resourcestatus, memory and processor status may be displayed, for example. Atask bar 120 d may be included providing additional user inputs toenable a user to edit a selected monitor, disable a selected monitor, tore-check a selected (e.g., Check now) monitor and/or to refresh thedisplay 120 a. An additional output display 120 e may also be providedto provide more details relating to status of a selected monitor. Forexample, a home page verification monitor 120 f may be selected. Asillustrated for example, a status field 120 g may display criticaland/or OK status. The display output 120 e provides additional detailsrelated to the status. For example, a status field 120 h may provide adate, time, name, status, threshold for the status, and a value relatedto a predetermined threshold.

Now referring to FIG. 7 b, another aspect of the present inventiondepicts a display 124 a for managing an entity. For example, a displayobject 124 b may depict a relationship of a plurality of members 124 cand 124 d, for example, wherein applications 126 a, 126 b, monitors 126c, 126 d, and/or events 126 e, 126 f as described above may be providedfor the members 124 c and 124 d. Additionally, applications 128 a,monitors 128 b, and events 128 c may be provided for the entity 124 b.In this manner, entities and members may be alternatively administered.It is noted, although not shown in FIG. 7 b, that members 124 c and 124d may alternatively be configured and depicted as entities in their ownright. For example, the display object 124 b depicting an entityrelationship of individual members 124 c and 124 d may alternatively beconfigured to include members which instead of being configured asmembers, may be configured similarly to the display object 124 b. Inthis manner, the present invention may include a hierarchy for an entitywherein the members are configured as entities. It is to be appreciatedthat the hierarchy of entities as described above may be extended toinclude other entities and/or members at a plurality of stages and/orlevels—if desired.

Turning now to FIG. 8 a, a cluster properties page 130 a illustrates anaspect of the present invention relating to configuration of the entityas a whole. This page may be selected for example via right mouse clickon the entity node display object as described above. Tab inputs 130 band 130 c may be provided to select additional options. For example, tab130 b may provide general performance options/inputs the user may selectand enter. These options may include: setting default COM and defaultdrain time (e.g., time to wait between stopping and taking new users ona server and removing users that may already be there), whether toautomatically synchronize members when content and/or configuration isupdated, time between automatic synchronization, whether to replicatefile and/or directory permissions, and selections relating to loadbalancing options such as selecting client affinity and/or providingthird party load balancing options. An input 130 d may also be providedwherein advanced load balancing options may be selected. For example,referring to FIG. 8 b, advanced load balancing options display 134 a mayinclude whether or not to enable session coherency, selection inputs forwhich sites coherency should apply, and an input field defining types offiles that should not be forwarded.

Briefly referring back to FIG. 8 a, if tab input 130 c were selected, acomponent services page 136 a as depicted in FIG. 8 c illustrates aconfiguration option relating to component routing. The user may thendefine a list of target servers that are employed for component loadbalancing (CLB). After the desired servers have been entered, an Addinput 136 b may then be selected to incorporate the server. A removeinput 136 c may also be included to remove any previously added serversfrom the list.

In addition to configuring properties as a whole, member properties mayalso be configured. For example, referring to FIG. 9, a memberproperties interface 140 a may be selected (e.g., right mouse click whenselecting a member node on the scope pane 54) to provide synchronizationand load balancing configurations. A selection input 140 b may beprovided to enable the user to select whether to keep the membersynchronized with the controller, for example. Relating to loadbalancing, an IP address input 140 c may be provided to enable the userto define an IP address related to load balancing tasks. An adjustmentinput 140 d may be provided to enable the user to modify the amount ofload a member may maintain in relation to other members. For example, ifthe adjustment input 140 d is positioned near the center, the member maybe adjusted for an average load in relation to other members if forexample, other members also were similarly adjusted to the center.

Referring now to FIG. 10 a, an events property interface 150 aillustrates another configuration aspect in accordance with the presentinvention. The interface 150 a may be selected when a user has selectedthe events node from the scope pane 54 and enables the user to selectthe types of events to log, from which log to record an event, and forhow long to store the logged events. Logs may include inputs forselecting: entity operations 150 b (e.g., Application Center), operatingsystems events 150 c (e.g., Windows/UNIX system events) and/or monitorevents 150 d. The user may then define and/or limit the event types byentering and/or selecting event types in the selection fields for aparticular log 150 b, 150 c and 150 d (e.g., Errors Only, Warnings Only,Errors and Warnings, etc.). An options interface 150 e may also beincluded to enable the user to determine aspects to employing eventlogs. For example, how long to store the event logs may be defined by aninput 150 f and whether to enable logging may be selected by input 150g.

An exclusions input 150 h may be provided to enable a user to excludespecific events from logging and/or to re-enable previously excludedevents. If the user selects the exclusions input 150 h, an exclusionsdialog 154 a illustrated in FIG. 10 b may then be invoked. Theexclusions dialog 154 a enables users to define, at a more granularlevel, events to exclude from being logged. For example, a product input154 b enables a user to define from which portion of the entity toexclude the requested event (e.g., Window, monitor). An event id input154 c may be provided to enable the user to define the associated event.For example, if the user were to enter number 1000, a Windowsapplication event may be defined. Add and Remove inputs 150 d and 150 erespectively may be provided to add and remove events respectively.

Turning now to FIGS. 11 a through 11 k, a configurations interface andprocess is illustrated relating to creating an entity in accordance withthe present invention. The FIGS. 11 a through 11 k define auser-oriented process for directing and enabling a user on how toconstruct an entity. The process may be defined in terms of a wizard,for example, that readily guides the procedure for the user. It is to beappreciated however that other illustrated sequences than depicted bythe process wizard may be employed.

Referring to FIG. 11 a, a process wizard start 160 a for creating anentity illustrates a standard welcome page when the wizard is invoked.The wizard may be invoked from any suitable menu input. Selection inputssuch as a next input 160 b and a back input 160 c are provided to enablethe user to get to the next step in the process and/or return to aprevious step. A cancel input 160 d may be provided to enable the userto discontinue the process at any desired time. A more information input160 e may be provided to provide the user with additional informationfor determining a selection. The following description will now bedirected to the process of creating an entity in a flow wherein the userproceeds to the next step (e.g., selects the next input 160 b) increating the entity. It is to be appreciated that the user may proceedback at each step to modify a previous selection and/or cancel theprocedure if so desired.

Proceeding to FIG. 11 b, a scan display 164 a may be provided to theuser to indicate system processes that may be occurring. A time bar 164b and message output 164 c may be provided to indicate to the usercurrent machine analysis events relating to integrated operating systemload balancing (e.g., Network Load Balancing) configuration analysis, IPaddress checking and other network related analysis, and/or NetworkInterface Card (NIC) checking, and other related software systemanalysis, for example. When the time bar 164 b becomes full, the processmay proceed to display FIG. 11 c.

At FIG. 11 c, the user may be provided a display interface 168 a withinput fields 168 b and 168 c to enter a name for the entity and toprovide a description if desired. Proceeding to FIG. 11 d, the processprovides selections to enable the user to determine which type of entitymay be desired (e.g., Web cluster, COM+ application cluster, COM+routing cluster). Proceeding to FIG. 11 e, selections are provided fordetermining client types for the entity. For example, selections may beprovided for determining whether the clients are other clusters and/orservers, and whether special client connections may be required (e.g.,DCOM). Proceeding to FIG. 11 f, and if an integrated operating systemload balancer such as Network Load Balancing has been detected on themachine, selection inputs 172 a and 172 b may be provided to determinewhether the process should modify load balancing settings for themachine. If YES is selected from input 172 a, the process may then beenabled to reconfigure load balancing settings. If NO is selected frominput 172 b, the process retains existing load balancing settings forthe machine.

Proceeding to FIG. 11 g, an interface display 176 a enables a user toselect the type of load balancing desired. For example, an input 176 bif selected would select an integrated operating system load balancersuch as Network Load Balancing. If input 176 c were selected, anextensible third party load balancer may be selected. Input 176 denables the user to select no load balancing for a cluster. Proceedingto FIG. 11 h, an interface display 180 a enables the user to selectwhich network interface card (NIC) to employ for load balancing.Proceeding to FIG. 11 i, an interface display 184 a is provided if theuser has previously selected the integrated operating system loadbalancer in FIG. 11 g. Inputs 184 b and 184 c may then be provided toenable the user to select a client affinity (e.g., Intranet based,Internet based). Proceeding to FIG. 11 j, an interface display 188 aenables a user to enter an e-mail address and e-mail server name whereinthe user may be contacted by entity monitor notifications (e.g., failurenotices). Proceeding to FIG. 11 k, a display interface 190 a finish pagemay be provided with a finish selection input 190 b to enable the userto complete the entity creation process and to enable the system toimplement the user's selections from the process.

Referring now to FIGS. 12 a through 12 f, a configurations interface andprocess is illustrated relating to adding a member to an entity inaccordance with the present invention. The FIGS. 12 a through 12 fdefine a user-oriented process for directing and enabling a user on howto add a server, for example. The process may be defined in terms of awizard, for example, that readily guides the procedure for the user. Itis to be appreciated however that other illustrated sequences thandepicted by the process wizard may be employed.

Referring to FIG. 12 a, a process wizard start 192 a for adding serversto an entity illustrates a standard welcome page when the wizard isinvoked. The wizard may be invoked from any suitable menu input.Selection inputs such as a next input and a back input, as describedabove, are provided to enable the user to get to the next step in theprocess and/or return to a previous step. Additionally, as describedabove in relation to the create entity start page, a cancel input may beprovided to enable the user to discontinue the process at any desiredtime, and a more information input may be provided to provide the userwith additional information for determining a selection. The followingdescription will now be directed to the process of adding a server tothe entity in a flow wherein the user proceeds to the next step (e.g.,selects the next input). It is to be appreciated that the user mayproceed back at each step to modify a previous selection and/or cancelthe procedure if so desired.

Proceeding to FIG. 12 b, a display interface 192 b is provided to enablethe user to select a server to add to the entity. For example, the usermay input a server name, user name, password and Domain. Proceeding toFIG. 12 c, a display interface 192 c enables a user to select acontroller member to add the server to. Proceeding to FIG. 12 d, a scandisplay interface 192 d may be provided to the user to indicate systemprocesses that may be occurring. A time bar and message output, asdescribed above in relation to the create entity wizard, may be providedto indicate to the user current machine analysis events such as NetworkLoad Balancing, IP address checking and/or Network Interface Card (NIC)checking. When the time bar becomes full, the process may proceed todisplay FIG. 12 e.

At FIG. 12 e, a display interface 192 e enables the user to select aload balanced NIC as described above in relation to the create entitywizard. Proceeding to FIG. 12 f, a display interface 192 f finish pagemay be provided with a finish selection input to enable the user tocomplete the process and to enable the system to implement the usersselections from the process.

Referring now to FIGS. 13 a through 13 f, a configurations interface andprocess is illustrated relating to deploying content and/orconfiguration to one or more entities and/or members in accordance withthe present invention. The FIGS. 13 a through 13 f define auser-oriented process for directing and enabling a user to deployapplication content. The process may be defined in terms of a wizard,for example, that readily guides the procedure for the user. It is to beappreciated however that other illustrated sequences than depicted bythe process wizard may be employed.

Referring to FIG. 13 a, a process wizard start 194 a for deploymentillustrates a standard welcome page when the wizard is invoked. Thewizard may be invoked from any suitable menu input. Selection inputssuch as a next input and a back input, as described above, are providedto enable the user to get to the next step in the process and/or returnto a previous step. Additionally, as described above in relation to thecreate entity start page, a cancel input may be provided to enable theuser to discontinue the process at any desired time, and a moreinformation input may be provided to provide the user with additionalinformation for determining a selection. The following description willnow be directed to the process of deploying content in a flow whereinthe user proceeds to the next step (e.g., selects the next input). It isto be appreciated that the user may proceed back at each step to modifya previous selection and/or cancel the procedure if so desired.

Proceeding to FIG. 13 b, a display interface 194 b is provided to entera deployment name and select the type of deployment desired. Forexample, the user may input a name (e.g., My Deployment at12:16:1904/24/00). Furthermore, the user may select to deploy contentinside an entity or outside the entity to non-members. Proceeding toFIG. 13 c, and if the user selects to deploy outside the current entityas described above, a display interface 194 c enables a user to providecredentials such as a username, password, and Domain for a target and/orset of target machines. Proceeding to FIG. 13 d, a display interface 194d may be provided to enable the user to select other members of thecurrent entity to deploy to.

Proceeding to FIG. 13 e, a display interface 194 e enables the user toselect additional deployment targets that may not be within the currententity. Proceeding to FIG. 13 f, a display interface 194 f enables theuser to select one or more applications to deploy. Proceeding to FIG. 13g, a display interface 194 g enables the user to select additionaldeployment options. The options may include, for example, deployingfolder and file permissions (e.g., access/security), deploying COM+applications, and/or deploying global ISAPI filters. Other options mayinclude whether to restart a web server on the target machines and/orwhether to deploy all available applications. Proceeding to FIG. 13 h, adisplay interface 194 h finish page may be provided with a finishselection input to enable the user to complete the process and to enablethe system to implement the users selections from the process.

In order to provide a context for the various aspects of the invention,FIG. 14 and the following discussion are intended to provide a brief,general description of a suitable computing environment in which thevarious aspects of the present invention may be implemented. While theinvention has been described above in the general context ofcomputer-executable instructions of a computer program that runs on acomputer and/or computers, those skilled in the art will recognize thatthe invention also may be implemented in combination with other programmodules. Generally, program modules include routines, programs,components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks and/orimplement particular abstract data types. Moreover, those skilled in theart will appreciate that the inventive methods may be practiced withother computer system configurations, including single-processor ormultiprocessor computer systems, minicomputers, mainframe computers, aswell as personal computers, hand-held computing devices,microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, and the like.The illustrated aspects of the invention may also be practiced indistributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remoteprocessing devices that are linked through a communications network.However, some, if not all aspects of the invention can be practiced onstand-alone computers. In a distributed computing environment, programmodules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.

With reference to FIG. 14, an exemplary system for implementing thevarious aspects of the invention includes a conventional computer 220,including a processing unit 221, a system memory 222, and a system bus223 that couples various system components including the system memoryto the processing unit 221. The processing unit may be any of variouscommercially available processors, including but not limited to Intelx86, Pentium and compatible microprocessors from Intel and others,including Cyrix, AMD and Nexgen; Alpha from Digital; MIPS from MIPSTechnology, NEC, IDT, Siemens, and others; and the PowerPC from IBM andMotorola. Dual microprocessors and other multi-processor architecturesalso may be employed as the processing unit 221.

The system bus may be any of several types of bus structure including amemory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus usingany of a variety of conventional bus architectures such as PCI, VESA,Microchannel, ISA and EISA, to name a few. The system memory includesread only memory (ROM) 224 and random access memory (RAM) 225. A basicinput/output system (BIOS), containing the basic routines that help totransfer information between elements within the server computer 220,such as during start-up, is stored in ROM 224.

The computer 220 further includes a hard disk drive 227, a magnetic diskdrive 228, e.g., to read from or write to a removable disk 229, and anoptical disk drive 230, e.g., for reading a CD-ROM disk 231 or to readfrom or write to other optical media. The hard disk drive 227, magneticdisk drive 228, and optical disk drive 230 are connected to the systembus 223 by a hard disk drive interface 232, a magnetic disk driveinterface 233, and an optical drive interface 234, respectively. Thedrives and their associated computer-readable media provide nonvolatilestorage of data, data structures, computer-executable instructions, etc.for the server computer 220. Although the description ofcomputer-readable media above refers to a hard disk, a removablemagnetic disk and a CD, it should be appreciated by those skilled in theart that other types of media which are readable by a computer, such asmagnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, digital video disks, Bernoullicartridges, and the like, may also be used in the exemplary operatingenvironment, and further that any such media may containcomputer-executable instructions for performing the methods of thepresent invention.

A number of program modules may be stored in the drives and RAM 225,including an operating system 235, one or more application programs 236,other program modules 237, and program data 238. The operating system235 in the illustrated computer may be a Microsoft operating system(e.g., Windows NT operating system). It is to be appreciated that otheroperating systems may be employed such as UNIX for example.

A user may enter commands and information into the server computer 220through a keyboard 240 and a pointing device, such as a mouse 242. Otherinput devices (not shown) may include a microphone, a joystick, a gamepad, a satellite dish, a scanner, or the like. These and other inputdevices are often connected to the processing unit 221 through a serialport interface 246 that is coupled to the system bus, but may beconnected by other interfaces, such as a parallel port, a game port or auniversal serial bus (USB). A monitor 247 or other type of displaydevice is also connected to the system bus 223 via an interface, such asa video adapter 248. In addition to the monitor, computers typicallyinclude other peripheral output devices (not shown), such as speakersand printers.

The computer 220 may operate in a networked environment using logicalconnections to one or more remote computers, such as a remote clientcomputer 249. The remote computer 249 may be a workstation, a servercomputer, a router, a peer device or other common network node, andtypically includes many or all of the elements described relative to theserver computer 220, although only a memory storage device 250 isillustrated in FIG. 14. The logical connections depicted in FIG. 14include a local area network (LAN) 251 and a wide area network (WAN)252. Such networking environments are commonplace in offices,enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets and the Internet.

When employed in a LAN networking environment, the server computer 220may be connected to the local network 251 through a network interface oradapter 253. When utilized in a WAN networking environment, the servercomputer 220 generally may include a modem 254, and/or is connected to acommunications server on the LAN, and/or has other means forestablishing communications over the wide area network 252, such as theInternet. The modem 254, which may be internal or external, may beconnected to the system bus 223 via the serial port interface 246. In anetworked environment, program modules depicted relative to the computer220, or portions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storagedevice. It will be appreciated that the network connections shown areexemplary and other means of establishing a communications link betweenthe computers may be used.

In accordance with the practices of persons skilled in the art ofcomputer programming, the present invention has been described withreference to acts and symbolic representations of operations that areperformed by a computer, such as the computer 220, unless otherwiseindicated. Such acts and operations are sometimes referred to as beingcomputer-executed. It will be appreciated that the acts and symbolicallyrepresented operations include the manipulation by the processing unit221 of electrical signals representing data bits which causes aresulting transformation or reduction of the electrical signalrepresentation, and the maintenance of data bits at memory locations inthe memory system (including the system memory 222, hard drive 227,floppy disks 229, and CD-ROM 231) to thereby reconfigure or otherwisealter the computer system's operation, as well as other processing ofsignals. The memory locations wherein such data bits are maintained arephysical locations that have particular electrical, magnetic, or opticalproperties corresponding to the data bits.

What has been described above are preferred aspects of the presentinvention. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivablecombination of components or methodologies for purposes of describingthe present invention, but one of ordinary skill in the art willrecognize that many further combinations and permutations of the presentinvention are possible. Accordingly, the present invention is intendedto embrace all such alterations, modifications and variations that fallwithin the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

1. A computer implemented method for interfacing and managing a plurality of entities as if a single entity, comprising: displaying a first set of objects representing a plurality of members which form an entity; displaying a second set of objects representing configurations for the entity; and interfacing the entity from the objects as if the entity was a single entity.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein displaying a first set of objects further includes providing an aggregated display of performance of the entity as a whole.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein displaying a first set of objects further includes providing a display of performance of a member.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein displaying a first set of objects further includes providing an aggregated display of events for the entity as a whole.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein displaying a first set of objects further includes providing a display of events for a member.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein displaying a first set of objects further includes providing an aggregated display of status of the entity as a whole.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein displaying a first set of objects further includes providing a display of status of a member.
 8. The method of claim 1 wherein displaying a first set of objects further includes providing an aggregated display of applications for the entity as a whole.
 9. The method of claim 1 wherein displaying a first set of objects further includes providing a display of applications for a member.
 10. The method of claim 1 wherein displaying a second set of objects further includes guiding the user via a sequence of steps to create the entity.
 11. The method of claim 10 wherein the sequence of acts is provided by a computer-implemented wizard.
 12. The method of claim 11 further comprising: analyzing member configurations; selecting an entity type; and selecting load balancing options.
 13. The method of claim 12 wherein analyzing member configurations comprises at least one of: integrated operating system load balancing configuration analysis; IP address checking; Network analysis; Network Interface Card(NIC) checking; and Software system analysis
 14. The method of claim 12 wherein selecting an entity type comprises selecting one of at least web cluster, COM+ application cluster and COM+ routing cluster.
 15. The method of claim 12 wherein selecting load balancing options comprises selecting one of at least integrated operating system load balancing and extensible third party load balancing.
 16. The method of claim 15 wherein selecting integrated operating system load balancing further comprises selecting client affinity.
 17. The method of claim 16 where selecting client affinity comprises selecting one of at least intranet based and internet based.
 18. The method of claim 12 wherein selecting load balancing options comprises selecting a network interface card (NIC) to employ for load balancing.
 19. The method of claim 1 wherein displaying a second set of objects further includes guiding the user via a sequence of steps to add a member to the entity.
 20. The method of claim 19 wherein the sequence of acts is provided by a wizard.
 21. The method of claim 20 further comprising: entering an authorized name and credentials for a member; entering a controller for associating to the member; analyzing member configurations; and selecting load balancing options.
 22. The method of claim 21 wherein entering credentials for a member further comprises: entering username; entering password; and entering a domain.
 23. The method of claim 21 wherein analyzing member configurations comprises at least one of: network load balancing configuration analysis; IP address checking; and Network Interface Card(NIC) checking.
 24. The method of claim 21 wherein selecting load balancing options comprises selecting a network interface card (NIC) to employ for load balancing.
 25. The method of claim 1 wherein displaying a second set of objects further includes guiding the user via a sequence of acts to deploy content across the entity.
 26. The method of claim 25 wherein the sequence of acts is provided by a wizard.
 27. The method of claim 26 further comprising: authenticating to a target; selecting targets in which to deploy information; and selecting content to deploy to the targets.
 28. The method of claim 27 wherein authenticating to a target further comprises: entering username; entering password; and entering a domain.
 29. The method of claim 27 wherein selecting content to deploy to targets further comprises selecting at least one of: deploy folder and file permissions; deploy COM+ applications; and deploy global ISAPI filters.
 30. The method of claim 1 wherein displaying the objects further comprising arranging the objects to form a topological representation of the entity and members.
 31. The method of claim 30, further comprising traversing the topological representation to a more or less granular selection.
 32. A computer implemented method for interfacing and managing a plurality of entities as if a single entity, comprising: displaying a first set of objects representing a plurality of members which form an entity; displaying a second set of objects representing configurations for the entity; and arranging the objects to form a topological representation of the entity and members; and interfacing the entity from the objects as if the entity was a single entity.
 33. The method of claim 32, further comprising traversing the topological representation to a more or less granular selection.
 34. The method of claim 32 wherein displaying a first set of objects further includes providing at least three of: an aggregated display of performance of the entity as a whole; a display of performance of a member; an aggregated display of events for the entity as a whole; a display of events for a member; an aggregated display of status of the entity as a whole; a display of status of a member; an aggregated display of applications for the entity as a whole; and a display of applications for a member.
 35. The method of claim 32 wherein displaying a second set of objects further includes guiding the user via a sequence of acts to: create the entity, add a member to the entity, and deploy content across the entity.
 36. The method of claim 35 wherein the sequence of acts is provided by a wizard.
 37. A computer implemented method for interfacing and managing a plurality of entities as if a single entity, comprising: displaying a set of objects representing a plurality of members which form an entity; and interfacing the entity from the objects as if the entity was a single entity.
 38. The method of claim 37 wherein displaying the objects further comprises arranging the objects to form a topological representation of the entity and members.
 39. The method of claim 38, further comprising traversing the topological representation to a more or less granular selection.
 40. The method of claim 37 wherein displaying a set of objects further includes the providing at least three of: an aggregated display of performance of the entity as a whole; a display of performance of a member; an aggregated display of events for the entity as a whole; a display of events for a member; an aggregated display of status of the entity as a whole; a display of status of a member; an aggregated display of applications for the entity as a whole; and a display of applications for a member.
 41. The method of claim 37 wherein displaying a set of objects further includes guiding the user via a sequence of acts to perform at least one of: create the entity; add a member to the entity; and deploy content across the entity.
 42. The method of claim 41 wherein the sequence of steps is provided by a wizard. 